Raked barges are well known in the art. The industry standard for the past several decades has been a 195 ft. by 35 ft. raked barge, known as a "semi-integrated jumbo" barge, having a bow form characterized by a radius usually greater than 30 ft., with the standard radius for a "jumbo" barge being about 40 ft. This radius defines the barge bow profile within a longitudinal centerline plane of symmetry of the barge. Such a barge bow form has a fullness associated therewith which can be defined in terms of a block coefficient equalling about 0.936, where the block coefficient is defined as: EQU C.sub.B =V/LBT,
where
C.sub.B is the block coefficient, PA1 V is the volume of displacement, PA1 L is the length on waterline, PA1 B is the beam, and PA1 T is the draft.
There has been little attention to, or analysis of, the design of inland dry cargo barges over the past 40 years. The attention to and analysis of barges during this time frame usually related to accommodating construction methods, including production line construction methods. While in the late 1940's and early 1950's a significant amount of barge model hydrodynamic testing was performed, this perhaps represents the last time that serious consideration was given to the hydrodynamics, and hence bow form, of inland dry cargo barges. Since then, the industry has apparently been of the view that barges are simple boxes about which it knows everything that needs to be known.
Literature documenting and industry sources concerned with the development of inland cargo barge design indicate that the primary interest has been lowest barge construction cost. The economic analysis associated with the hydrodynamic design has consisted, for the most part, of an evaluation of a single barge or a small flotilla at the design speed where the lowest resistance per ton displacement was the best. In short, there seemingly is little, if any, evidence to suggest that the existing standard barge bow forms were ever determined to be economically optimum.
In view of the significant role that barges play in commerce on the inland waterways, it would be highly desirable to improve efficiency in their utilization. Specifically, it would be desirable to determine an economically optimum barge bow form wherein the maximum profit is obtained, thereby maximizing barge economic efficiency.